In an unfortunate hazing incident in 2008, Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Theta Chi lost one of its brothers, Harrison Kowiak, on the night of his initiation. Since Kowiak’s death, his mother Lianne Kowiak has made it her mission to legislate hazing laws nationwide. The self-proclaimed “Haze Buster,” US Representative Frederica Wilson, has stood behind Kowiak and her cause, promising to file a bill denying financial aid to any and all students who participate in hazing.

Enter FratPAC, which initially sounded to me like some sort of national league of fraternal superheroes, but is actually a Political Action Committee representing fraternities and sororities. Their goal, as stated, is to “protect the fraternal experience we offer to our members.” The organization is known for lobbying to get tax breaks for chapter house renovations that promote the safety of residents, and for the past 19 months, its most recent endeavor has been dissuading Wilson from filing her anti-hazing bill as it stands, unbeknownst to Lianne Kowiak.

The argument against the bill is that there are already “good laws in place.” Universities have hazing policies, and 44 states have anti-hazing laws. Treating all hazing allegations identically, they say, is unfair. Deaths and injuries are different, from say, a scavenger hunt and should be handled differently. To deny financial aid to someone for having a pledge clean a kitchen, or go pick your necklace up from the house you shacked at last night, is disproportionate. They argue that a strict law would weaken the sanctity of the traditions of their organizations:

“We have been aggressively working with the congressional leader to develop a more favorable approach,” FratPAC and the other groups told their members in a mid-2012 memo. “For the moment, we believe that effort has been successful and federal hazing legislation is not likely to be introduced in 2012.”

Opponents of this anti-hazing bill also note that threatening to pull financial aid from students may target a certain demographic, who generally have a greater need for financial aid than others. They suggest that this type of penalty would have a greater impact on multicultural Greek organizations and HBCs than it would on traditional organizations.

FratPAC makes it clear that they do not support hazing, but rather that they want to work to make sure that a bill, if passed, would treat fraternities, sororities, and other organizations accused of hazing fairly. Wilson remains committed to filing a bill at some point, but admits that FratPAC has made her aware of “some hiccups” in the bill as it’s currently written.

Email this to a friend

Veronica (@VeronicaRuckh) is the Director of Total Sorority Move for Grandex, Inc. After having spent her undergraduate years drinking $4 double LITs on a patio and drunk texting away potential suitors, she managed to graduate with an impressive GPA and an unimpressive engagement ring -- so unimpressive, in fact, some might say it's not there at all. Veronica has since been fulfilling her duties as "America's big," a title she gave to herself with the help of her giant ego. She has recently switched from vodka to wine on weekdays. Email her at veronica@grandex.co

“Anti-bullying” (and, as a subset of that, “anti-hazing”) has become the new go-to slogan for authoritarian politicians, just like “Think about the children!” was in the past. It’s gotten to the point where they can pass just about any law, no matter how incredibly absurd and intrusive it is, if they claim it is used to combat bullying.

Guess what? Life is full of bullying. Not everything is fucking rainbows and unicorns. If you waste all of your efforts trying to eliminate every possible social adversity that kids face, we will have a new generation of pussified losers who cannot handle anything without help from their mommies. It’s already happening.

It’s a tragedy when someone dies from hazing, and I feel terribly for the families of the victims, but blanket appeals to emotion coupled with this kind of bullshit legislation do nothing for the victims or for the people it seeks to protect. GDIs just dont’ grasp this concept.

^^ The fact that it was on the night of initiation doesn’t excuse death. Yeah things are a little bit worse than all the other fun activities enjoyed the previous semester, but saying “it was initiation night” doesn’t excuse death. You can’t “shake off” head trauma. I know what you mean in that you should “take it one last time,” but limits are limits, regardless of how far along in the process you are.

Few things to build on that…
One, it said night of initiation… He was done being hazed.
Two, if Americans pride themselves on being strong, you have to deal with some shit. People that snap under bullying or cant take hazing are the weak and get removed from the equation. Call it natural selection, or in our case, not wanting faggots representing you. Nothing worth having comes easily.
Three, of all fucking pictures to use, why did you have to pick the one of the cargo short wearing geed with a goofy fucking face that’s making his pledges dress up like babies. There’s like nothing frat about that picture.

Its cool though hot piece, i’d still give it to you any way you wanted.

^The kid was definitely being hazed when he was killed. They were playing “Bull in the Ring” or sumshit like that. He was blindfolded while actives tackled the living shit out of him, causing some kind of severe head trauma (or something like that). I only know this because I’ve heard his mother speak before. I really do feel bad for her because it was a tragedy that could have been avoided. She’s actually a nice lady who isn’t against Greek life, but obviously doesn’t want to see this happen again. That is totally understandable. But I agree about the ridiculousness of bullying/hazing laws that completely try to remove an inevitable factor of life. Shit’s gon’ happen.

Spot on, hot piece. Everyone agrees that hazing in which ones life is truly in peril has no place, but things like designated driving (which would qualify as hazing) shouldn’t cost someone their scholarship.